


retrograde

by orphan_account



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreamwalking, Gore, Hurt Klaus Hargreeves, No Incest, Tags to be added, ig, no beta we die like ben
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-18 11:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21275276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Ben never questioned why they always seemed to jerk awake at the same time, why Klaus sobbed when Ben wailed, how he could always guess what his nightmares were about, describing excessive detail as if Klaus himself was there.orklaus can dreamwalk
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 7
Kudos: 117





	retrograde

**Author's Note:**

> I’m genuinely not sure if this will be more than a one shot, but I’ll keep it open ended just in case??
> 
> honestly this isn’t even good I’m sick as fuck and restricted to my bed and I was bored
> 
> there’s some violence and gore in Ben’s dreams so please be aware of that.

_ “Hello.” _

_ A stretch of silence filled the air, before watery eyes blinked upwards at Klaus. Ben’s cheeks were red and puffy from tears, eyes wide and vulnerable, and Klaus suddenly wanted to wrap himself around Ben, curled up and shivering against the floor. _

_ There was something twitching against Ben’s stomach, tendrils that pooled around his body and curled up against his skin, bloody and raw and soaked with death. They were hurting Ben, ripped through his guts and writhing against dirt and rubble. A whimpered keened out through Ben’s cracked lips. _

_ Klaus barely restrained a grimace. “Hey, let's get up Ben. C’mon.” He took a tentative step towards his hunched body, feet testing the rubble underneath them. _

_ Then Ben’s eyes returned to his own, wide and staring with unrivaled rust, crinkled with pain. It almost reminded Klaus of himself. _

_ Ben swallowed. “Why- What are you doing here?” His voice didn’t crack with sadness, or distress. It was almost monotonous amidst the horror. _

_ “Benny, you’re all covered in blood.” Klaus countered without actually answering, and he took Ben’s shock and confusion as an invitation forward. _

_ Ben instinctually scampered backwards, pulling the tentacles along with him. They seemed to protest the sudden movement, shaken from their peace and now, twisted and yanked erratically. Nevertheless, Ben’s face remained unshaken, twisted into confusion and contemplation over Klaus’ presence. _

_ Klaus found it useful not to overthink things like this. _

_ “Okay.” Ben sighed, and it seemed like acceptance. Resignation. _

_ Ben propped himself up, and Klaus took his hand. _

_ They woke up. _

  


They woke up— back to back, and Klaus could feel the shivers racking through Ben’s body. He knew he was crying without having to meet his face. His hands were bathed in darkness, yet Klaus knew they were clawing at his stomach.

As always, Klaus merely turned onto his back and poked at Ben’s shoulder gently. Ben had always blamed Klaus’ intuition when the subject came up. Why he could always tell when he had woken up from a nightmare without fail. He always knew how to comfort him, what to say, what he wanted to talk about. Ben once said that he found it weird that Klaus showed up in almost all of his dreams.

Sometimes Klaus woke up with tears streaming down his own cheeks, red and raw from sobs, throat stuffy and wet, telling Ben with a thick voice that he loved him. Those were only on Ben’s particularly bad nightmares. They made Klaus want to scream, to never fall asleep again.

Those were nights harder to explain.

But Ben never questioned why they always jerked awake at the same time, why Klaus sobbed when Ben wailed, how he could always guess what his nightmares were about, describing excessive detail as if Klaus himself was _ there _.

_ “I had a nightmare last night.” Ben explains, hands gathered in his lap. His voice is still scratchy from use. _

_ “It was about The Horrors, wasn’t it? They… they killed us all. You feel guilty— and scared.” The words tumble out of Klaus’ mouth all at once. Ben stares, before stuttering out a nod. Neither of them question it. _

And Klaus hadn’t questioned it, at first.

The first time he’d found himself tangled in someone else’s dreams was when he was 6 years old.

He hadn’t known at the time, but he’d always found it curious. Grace would put his siblings in the same room to sleep, sometimes, because she’d claimed they slept better with each other in the room. He would have eerily similar dreams with them, when they’d all share a room, too similar to be a coincidence, but too young to know the difference.

Shortly afterwards, Ben’s powers were discovered. Klaus’ powers were discovered too, he could speak to people who weren’t around anymore. He didn’t know why they showed up, or how they got there, but only Klaus could see them and it made him special. Dad called them “the dead”. He heard that word a lot, despite not knowing totally what it meant.

But Reginald never told any of them that their powers had anything to do with dreams, so Klaus hadn’t felt like it was worth mentioning.

When Klaus began having blood-curdling, murderous scream-inducing nightmares, he was merely 8 years old. So he padded into Diego’s room for the first time since they’d all been separated, and slipped under a thick blanket of darkness, and his sheets. Diego grumbled in annoyance but merely turned his back to Klaus and fell right back asleep.

Klaus couldn’t recall the dream he’d had that night. It was Diego’s dream, respectively, but one that Klaus had unknowingly imposed himself into it. 

_ “You talk in your sleep, y’know?” _

_ “Mind your own business Klaus.” _

_ He chokes out a laugh. “Wish I could.” _

He didn’t want to see, not all the time, especially when his siblings’ dreams grew a bit too personal as they grew up. When they were younger, they’d all basically shared the same memories and experiences, held the same views and thoughts that their father had formed for them and drilled into their brains. As they got older, though, they were developing their own thoughts and feelings and experiencing their own form of torture under Reginald’s grip. It was an invasion of privacy, encroaching on their deepest fears and wants and memories.

Even so, Klaus wouldn’t tell them that.

He’d learn a lot about his siblings over the years through the kinds of dreams they had. Mostly Ben, but also Diego and sometimes even Allison. Her dreams were the most fun, the most _ dreamy _. They reeked of control and glamour, and Klaus came to crave that every once in a while. It was a rare treat, maybe, to experience that every once in a while. So different from his own nightmares that consisted of death and gore and spirits and spilt guts and deceased siblings, rotted corpses that decomposed in the ground and pleaded for Klaus to join them.

Those were Klaus’ dreams. It made him glad that his powers didn’t work both ways. Dreams like those traumatized an 8 year old. Ben’s dreams were the only ones that could somehow manage to be worse than Klaus’.

So maybe Klaus was torturing himself to offer Ben a spot beside him every night.

It’s why he could never tell Ben that he saw what he saw. It would scar Ben, make him thrash and cry in his own bed to protect Klaus from his disgusting visions.

Maybe it was torture that Klaus subjected himself to that night. When Ben’s nightmares escalated. When Ben was tearing himself apart, when Klaus watched him lifelessly kill his siblings, the monsters in his stomach _ murdering murdering murdering _ until everyone he loved was unmoving on the floor. When Klaus laid alongside them.

—

Ben woke up first that time, his own chest heaving for air, but immediately turning over to reach for Klaus.

Instead of meeting Klaus’ big, understanding eyes, he was met with a sleeping body, crying and hiccuping and choking on his own tears. Thrashing against the pillow and convulsing through screams. Ben was used to Klaus’ own nightmares, but this was different. He was muttering, pleading, begging for mercy with Ben’s name. He was having a nightmare. It sounded so similar, _ so similar _.

It sounded just like when Ben was killing him, moments before in the confines of his own mind.

And then, it all clicked.

**Author's Note:**

> as always leave feedback if u enjoyed <3


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